My interest in Lillian Tiffany the artist came about by chance. I found a reference to her while conducting research for my novel on the Durant family. She was famous for her artwork of dogs, both paintings and sketches, in the 1930s-1950s and lived in New City, New York with her husband, Durant Rose (Timbrell Durant Rose 1896 - 1962), son of Ella Durant Rose (1853-1943).

I was looking though the correspondence of Ella Durant Rose in the Syracuse University Collections of her papers and found letters addressed to 'Lillian Tiffany Rose' Ella's daughter-in-law dated 1932-34.

As if I had nothing better to do with my time, I went to New York City to look through the papers of Poultney Bigelow, housed at the New York Public Library. I discovered correspondence from Lillian Tiffany, including her own personally-sketched Christmas cards. In them she mentions how busy her husband Durant is busy with his job. I then made the connection: Durant Rose, Ella Durant's son and Lillian's husband, was Poultney’s Bigelow's Godson.

I didn’t think too much about it until one day I stumbled upon a request from somebody on Ancestry.com asking for information about the artist Lillian Tiffany Durant. The person making the request knew there was a connection to Durant but didn’t realize it was Durant Rose.

Soon afterwards I received an inquiry from someone in New City, NY that happened to buy the house that Lillian and Durant built in 1937. He was doing renovations when he found some of Lillian’s sketches and when he Googled the Durant name he found my website and blog about the Durant family (interestingly there is a Durant Rd. and Rose Blvd in the same town).

I explained the connection to him. I don’t know very much about Ella Durant’s life after the lawsuit she won against her brother in 1903 to claim her part of the inheritance left by their father Dr. Thomas C. Durant. She helped found the Dante Society, wrote a few novels and published a book of poetry. She contributed articles to the New York Times.She married Charles Rose late in her life, and had her son Durant when she was around 43 years of age.

The fact that she made Poultney Bigelow the godfather of her only son is a testament to their close friendship that began one summer in the Adirondacks in 1878 and lasted well into the 1930s.

I know even less about Lillian Tiffany and Durant Rose. Their lives do not intertwine with the timeline of my novel so I would have no reason to investigate further except for the fact that I am curious. When I looked up Lillian’s artwork on the Internet I found that some of her paintings sell for ~$2,000. If anyone else knows more about the life of Lillian Tiffany, please share.

Lillian Tiffany Sketches courtesy of Poultney Bigelow papers. Manuscripts and Archives Division. The New York Public Library. Astor, Lenox, and Tilden Foundations.

Dear RSS Feed Readers: Thanks for following me even if I don’t know who you are. RSS (Real Simple Syndication) alerts subscribers when there are updates to a favorite website or blog (note the RSS Feed button to the right of this page if you want to subscribe).

Although I have a robust email list, the subscribers to the RSS feed on my blog page remain a mystery to me but I don't mind. I like when I post a new blog and lo and behold get thousands of hits to my webpage. But, dear RSS Feed Readers, you may be wondering why my updates are not popping into your feeds lately. So I thought I’d explain.

I’m busy writing my third book in the trilogy on the Durant Family, and I’m assuming that’s why you’re following me: to find out what I’ve learned in my research and how my work is progressing. Well, I can definitively tell you, slowly. I’m still researching, still discovering new material, but I’m not ready to reveal all of it, yet. As for my writing schedule, I decided to slow it all down. I cranked out the first two books in the trilogy over the course of three years. To do this I had to spend every day during the summer months and during my scheduled academic breaks writing. Although I didn’t mind the grueling schedule I never had time for friends or family. And last summer was just too gorgeous to not be outside! So instead of writing every day, I swam in the lake, read good and bad books, and traveled to the Adirondacks to speak about my work to over 100 people at various events. It was fun.

I have also learned that slowing down the pace of writing has allowed me to dwell more in the heads of my characters. The third book in this trilogy starts in 1931 when William and Ella are in their late 70s. They are meeting with people that want to write their biography. For William that person is Harold Hochschild, founder of the Adirondack Museum, and the last biographer to actually invite William to his Adirondack home at Eagle Nest, Blue Mountain, NY and talk to him about his life. For Ella it is Poultney Bigelow, her one-time lover and dear friend. She finds herself at his home on Malden-on-Hudson, NY and they rehash her life story.

Interestingly, both Harold’s home and Poultney’s home still stand. I would like to visit these places, have been meaning to visit Poultney’s house and even set up an appointment to do so but had to cancel. As for Harold’s house, well if any of you RSS readers have a connection for me, let me know. I enjoy writing about atmosphere.

Dwelling in the minds of my characters over the course of time has also allowed me to consider carefully their reactions to the most traumatic time period in their lives: THE LAWSUIT between brother and sister over the family Adirondack land holdings. I thought I’d let the whole thing breath.

As for continuing to blog on this site – well I’ve found other outlets and other things to write about that have nothing to do with the Durants, and I like that as well.

So if you’ve been wondering where I’ve been, or why I’m not updating the feed consistently, that is why. Don’t expect the third book to come out in spring 2017. I’ve slowed my pace down.

Thank you, RSS Readers, for following my progress. If you decide you'd like to join my email list, you can subscribe right here. As you might imagine, I don't clog up people's inbox with my updates.